I totally agree with you-. It’s one of the reasons why I quit - I just couldn’t make things safer or change the attitude of leadership.

I spent a ton of time trying to get the police to help protect my team. Or to get leadership to redirect the police. The police answer was, they didn’t want to enter the parks because it was too dangerous for police because there were plants and trees that made it harder to see danger. Yet They still expected the lowest paid workers to go there and work. I had a day when they basically ignored one of my employees who was getting racist threats as he was picking up trash and accused him of wasting police resources - this was the kindest hardest working 65 year old guy, who wouldn’t have called the police unless he was truly scared for his life.

I basically realized one of my team would have to be killed for anything to really change. Unfortunately it almost happened to another team that handled janitorial services- guy got stabbed. They did start a special team to deal with encampments after that, but there was still no changes in the issues at the parks.

It’s hard to stay empathetic about homeless when you deal with the worst of them on a daily basis. I worked in parks and my team was constantly getting attacked and cleaning up their urine and feces, blood and needles. There were people offering them access to services every week and the worst ones always refuse. Most people who work in parks are kind introverted people who love plants, and want people to enjoy green space . just seeing my team get punched in the face or their arm broken made it really hard to feel any empathy towards homeless. I really had to work at it.

I mean most people don’t have empathy for the opposite political party, imagine trying to empathize with someone who shits on your desk every day.

Some of them are obviously mentally ill, a few are just down on their luck, but also some of them are violent criminals who carry weapons. It was pretty typical to find some that had open warrants for arrest in other states.

It’s also improving sales of used and handmade items from small businesses and craftspeople. My eBay sales are up 10% and I expect even more in the next few months.

Hopefully it will also alienate his big business cronies or accelerate the demise of their businesses I’m up for either.

Look for bareroot trees if you want a better deal.

I’ve been preparing for some kind of problem with produce for a few years, I just had a gut feeling so I built a vegetable garden 3 years ago. Also have been planting fruit trees everywhere.

I was the first of my siblings to cut contact with my dad and stepmom. I had to really consider how I would feel when my dad died, if I cut contact, I didn’t want to regret it.
My stepmom was abusive and my dad always chose her over our safety.
Now all but one of my siblings have cut contact.
They tell people we ghosted them. They reach out regularly to try to contact us. I’ve realized it’s because they feel bad about themselves and it’s never about knowing us or caring about us. Half the messages they send us say stuff about how we are going to hell and we need to find Jesus.

The hardest part is explaining to people with normal families, they never understand that parents who can’t love you exist, and that a big happy reconciliation wouldn’t be a good thing.

Our library loans out state parks passes for a month so you can go to parks for free. It also loans out hiking gear, provides immigration resources, and oddly, a ukulele.

I retired early in September. I lost about 30k. I put this years Roth investment into a cd that doesn’t mature for 3 years because I knew what was coming.

It’s strange but now that I’m not working the loss bothers me less. I think I hated my job so much losing money made me feel like all that hard work and misery was futile.

Luckily, I don’t plan to live off my retirement investments for another 10 years. I reduced my cost of living by building a tiny house, and living super minimally. I live on what could qualify me for food stamps in my city. Instead I have a garden and I grow food.

I have a part time side business that pays most of my expenses and it tends to do better even with economic turmoil because it’s cheaper than buying imports. Sales are up 10% over the same time last year.

There’s only one good answer to this question period.